My Baking Tools

Below is a list of my baking tools organized in sections broken down by their use, and some that are “nice to have” but not essential. I’ve spent many years buying & trying tools one at a time to make things more efficient and baking easier. The list below is the accumulation of all those tools which I still use regularly and nothing else. I keep this page updated frequently with anything I’ve found to be better than the tool used before it.

Once you get more serious head to the Nice to Haves section and explore these tools. They will elevate your baking to the next level and help you make your loaves more consistent and precise, or in some cases, just plain make things easier (thank you Thermapen, probably my favorite baking tool I’ve purchased to date).

Sourdough Starter Creation & Management

These tools are essential when starting your first sourdough starter and keeping it alive an healthy. You want to use weights instead of volumes, a good stirrer and glass container, and of course, rye flour to get things going.

I love Bob’s quality and rye flour is the key to creating a lively starter

The Beginning Baker

A list of tools that are almost all necessary to bake at home. You could get away with not having a few of them (bench knife, ambient thermometer, white rice flour, bulk container and fine sea salt) but I’d highly recommend picking up all of these items if you’re really going to start baking. Trust me.

a pack of razors and a coffee stirrer constructed as you see. used to score your bread before baking

Nice to Haves

These are tools that are by no means essential, but will help to raise your baking game to the next level and/or will make things much, much easier. Only pick these up if you’re very serious about baking or have been baking a while.

extremely healthy, and tasty. used to coat and bake-in some of my seeded breads

Flour

Ideally you’d want locally milled flour for freshness and to support local farmers & millers, but sometimes that is not an option or perhaps you just want to try something new. Central Milling and Guisto’s both provide flour that I’ve found to be excellent, with perhaps a slight lead to Giusto’s at the moment.